Christmas is Coming, 2016 .... Part Two

My dear friend, Linda, has lent me this book to read for Christmas:

How Mrs Claus saved Christmas by Jeff Guinn

Doesn't the book cover look so pretty with my red and yellow roses?  Together, they make a lovely Christmas display.

On a further Christmassy note, I had a lovely seafood lunch on Sunday by the Yarra River at Waterfront Restaurant with my "Tennis" Group or Mother's Group.  We have been meeting for over twenty-six years now.  We don't really play tennis, we just used to meet as a playgroup in the club rooms of a tennis club - hence the name - but we do get teased a lot about our lack of tennis prowess and playing!

.... and to continue the Christmassy theme, I finished-finished my Baby's First Christmas Ornament - as you know, I am always very anxious about my finishing ability but I must admit, I am pretty pleased with how this one has turned out.

What do you think? Will it past muster?

On another note, we have had the 'cat wars' here as DS1 came home on Friday night (yay!  So lovely to have him home) with their cat, Nobu (DDIL is due to arrive this Saturday).

Best to say that Furio and Milo are feeling a little put out and Furio and Nobu are duking it out for who is Alpha Cat! lol!

Now, guess who is trying to get close to me whilst I am doing some authoring for a publisher??    Furio, of course!

Close!

Closer!

Ooops! Mum has got cross with me and pushed me away.  Okay, I will go stick my head in under the monitor - that should be comfortable! lol!

Okay, that is it for me for now, 

hugs, 

P.S. Sorry, no pic of Milo this post, he is very skittish with the new cat in the house - next time, I hope!

Weekend Roundup ..... FNSI, IHSW and the HTC....

Now, I sort of extended my weekend to start on Thursday, as we were going to the Heidelberg Theatre Company - HTC - on Friday night.  So, here is what went on each day:

Thursday:

 I stitched for Friday Frolics ..... which counts towards Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).  

I did a stash dive and found this sweet stitch languishing in my pile of UFOs/WIPs.

Now, this is where I was up to, and I cannot find anywhere on this blog, my main blog, any reference to when I stitched this last (most remiss of me!).

Update: With some "forensic" research and the realisation that I had mislabelled my earlier FF post on this design (I put "Singin' in the Rain" instead of "Singin' in the Spring" Duh!), I discovered that the last time I stitched on this piece was 22nd January, 2016 and that I blogged about it on Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics blog, not this one.)

Anyway, this is where I was up to before this week's FF ....

.... and here is what I achieved for FF.....

Isn't that a sweet singin' birdie?

Now, if you want to see what everyone else got up to, please click on the following links...

Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics

Friday Night Sew In

Friday:

Only a little bit of stitching and knitting happened as I had visitors for lunch and then it was out to dinner at Zein's Authentic , where I had the most delicious garfish dish.....

..... before seeing "One man, two guvnors" at the HTC.  Oh, the play was so much fun!

About the play

One easily-confused and ever-ravenous Francis Henshall finds himself a minder of two men, a gangster and a criminal in hiding, both of whom are linked in a web of schemes, extortions and romantic associations. To prevent discovery Francis must keep his two guvnors apart at all costs. But it’s tricky. Mistaken identities, cross dressing and multiple mishaps soon coalesce to engulf him in pandemonium.

This internationally-acclaimed smash hit is a glorious celebration of British comedy. It has a wonderful mix of satire, slapstick and witty one liners.

NOTE: SHOW IS SOLD OUT!

Source: http://htc.org.au/index.html

The whole experience was enhanced by the inclusion of a live skiffle band.

I can tell you, we laughed and laughed throughout the whole play. It was a great finish to the 2016 season.

Saturday:

Another very busy day: in the morning TraderVic and I went to visit my dear Dad in his new nursing home.  He seemed in really good spirits and kept telling me how much he liked the food there and how nice the nurses are.  So, that is a really good sign that he is settling in well.

                                          

He is looking so much better already.

[Update: a few people have made very kind comments about the quilt on Dad's bed.  Well, it is the quilt I made for my mother's 80th birthday in 2002. It had sat on their bed as a decorative quilt ever since; so I thought that we should take it to the nursing home to brighten up Dad's room.]

Then TraderVic and I had to do some stuff at Dad's house and then it was home for a rest because that evening we were going to a friend's home to play ....

None of us could draw very well but that didn't stop us having lots of fun!

Sunday:

Another busy day, first off it was coffee with my sweet friend, Marie (I still can't walk very far on this broken toe) and then it was off to visit an elderly family friend in hospital.  She is a wonder, she gets everywhere by public transport and is an active support of the Arts, but unfortunately, she broke her kneecap in the city the week before last.  

So, I took her some roses from my garden and sat and did a bit of stitching while I had a long chat with her and kept her company.  

Witchy remedy by Silver Creek Samplers from JCS Halloween Ornie Mag 2011

You can read more about my stitching history of this piece on the this blog post from Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics....

An oldie but a goodie

After my hospital visiting, I dropped by my dear friend Lisa's house, to help her set up some christmas decorations for our upcoming Book Club Christmas Dinner which she is hosting (we are having it catered) and then we drank some celebratory bubbly in her spa!  What a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

That evening, it was a light dinner for TraderVic and I (poached eggs on toast) and we had a bit of a The Walking Dead marathon, as we have been binge watching the earlier seasons (which we had already seen when they were first aired) concurrently with watching Season 7.  Now, I was happy about this as it gave me lots of stitching time and I made more great progress on Singin' in the Spring.

Coming along nicely, I think.

Ooops, I nearly forgot, I managed to squeeze in some knitting on DD's London Blanket, too.  

So, overall, a successful Friday Frolics/FNSI/IHSW and ....

.... in all a very busy weekend all around but not for some... Furio loved having a nap on this old quilt.....

Remember, if you wish to check out what everyone else has done for this SALs, click on the following links....

Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics

FNSI

IHSW

hugs, 

A quick update on my Dad.....

.... and on my roses and some Stash Empire Building...

But first, I must thank everyone who has sent me messages of support for Dad. (You can read about what happened in this post here.) He is doing well and the big news is, after over a week of nursing home visits, endless phone calls to case workers, social workers, nursing home business managers and the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) by my two sisters, myself and TraderVic, we have found him a lovely nursing home.

It is called The Alexander (just like my eldest son) and is a small, family-run nursing home.  Some of the nursing homes we looked at were very large and we just think that Dad would get lost and overlooked.  Honestly, his leg could be on fire and he would just ask the nurse for a glass of water and try to put it out himself, without one word of complaint.  So, we need somewhere smaller for him, so that he is noticed, so to speak.  

He will be moving to his new home on Monday, so I think that may be an emotional day for all of us.

Now, in my absence, my roses have been running riot.  They are just stunning this year, so far.  Here are my latest pics.

Oh, and as usual, I had fun with my Impresso App on my phone and here is the same pic as above as an Impressionist painting.

Cool App, isn't it?

Now, to the Stash Empire Building.  I had a smidgeon of free time yesterday, so what did I do with it.  Visited one of my favourite shops in the world, of course.  My LNS, Lazy Daisy.  The lovely Wendy and Sue, always make me feel welcome, are up for a chat and naturally, are happy to feed my Stash Empire Building addiction - lol!

So, here is what I came home with....

Some cute Lizzie Kate Christmas Designs...

Love the sheep and the Leaping Deer on this booklet.

Can't make up my mind whether to stitch Santa in his nightgown or "Is it too late to be good?" first, these are two seriously cute designs!

I also, picked up my Whooligan fabric which had been ordered for me.  But do you notice something strange?  In the photo of the design, the fabric is blue but what came is definitely gray but it does have sparkles, so I am happy with that!

I also chose these four Drawn Thread designs, (I am sucker for seasonal designs, especially in a series).  Although, I may brighten some of the floss colours up a bit, I will do a floss toss first though, and then decide.

 ... and lastly, I chose this trio of smalls from Plum Street Samplers....

I am quite drawn to crows at the moment - I seem to see them wherever I go - not sure if that is significant or not.  This is the rhyme regarding the number of Crows that you see.  At different times lately, I have seen one or two or three at a time but never more than that.

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told.
Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten for a bird,
You must not miss.

Okay, that is all for now, my next post (probably later today) will definitely be the gorgeous garden of the B&B we stayed at on Kangaroo Island.

If you want to follow the earlier posts about our trip to Kangaroo Island, please click on the links below:

So much to tell you

Still travelling to Kangaroo Island

Oh, one more thing.  Today is Remembrance Day.

This year 11 November marks the 98th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War (1914–18). Each year on this day Australians observe one minute’s silence at 11 am, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.

Lest we forget

Now, that is definitely it for this post, 

Talk again soon, 

hugs, 

Every thing is coming up Roses...

... in my garden, that is.  Today, I picked these gorgeous Golden Fairytale blooms.  (The first pic I altered with Impresso).

... and last week I picked forty-three blooms from my garden (the bulk of them were from two crimson rose bushes).  There were so many that I could not fit them all in one basket as I was picking them.

It looks like it is going to be a very good year for the roses!

hugs, 

IHSW_October....

... well, for IHSW, I thought that I should continue on with my PS 12 Days of Santa as I am finally getting so near to finishing the series.  Yay!

So, here is Day 12 so far....

... here are some of the lovely roses from my garden (I had a play around with the special effects on the Aviary app on my iphone to get the photo looking like this).

I hope that you all had a great IHSW, 

I don't think that dear Joyce has put up the October link yet but check out her blog anyway, 

hugs, 

Santa SAL

Hi everyone,

I have finally got back to my Prairie Schooler Santa's Twelve Days of Christmas SAL which I do every Sunday with my dear, dear friend Linda.  Now, for me this SAL started in January, 2012 - so it would be nice to finish the 12th day this year.

Well, I may actually be on track for that because I can now present to you......

DAY EIGHT!

Now, you may remember that I told you all a couple of blog posts ago, that finally my baking/cooking mojo seems to have come back.  Well, I am enjoying my cooking again.  Here we have a yummy Beef Stroganoff and a light and fluffy crab omelette I made for a couple of meals.

This next pic is not my cooking but last night TraderVic and I went out with some close friends to an old Wesleyan meeting house which has been converted into a sort of pub/bar/restaurant called the Wesley Anne (clever play on words, hey?)

Monday night is two for one night, so my delicious dinner of Chicken and Cheddar Pie with garlic mash and mushy peas was only $11.50! Quite a bargain!

Lastly, I leave you with two beautiful roses from my garden.  They looks so pretty with my mother's china and the sweet stitching dear Kim made for me.

That is all, off to work shortly.

hugs,